


Strings of Fate

by princessofthedeadsheep



Series: Within The Hands of Fate [1]
Category: Code Lyoko
Genre: Dysfunctional Family, Epic Friendship, Families of Choice, Family Dynamics, Family Feels, Female Friendship, Friendship, Male Friendship, Male-Female Friendship, OT5 Friendship, Other, Pack Family, Soul Bond, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-12-01
Updated: 2016-06-11
Packaged: 2018-02-27 15:50:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 16,959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2698568
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/princessofthedeadsheep/pseuds/princessofthedeadsheep
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You'd think that having strings to tell you who was going to be important in your life would help make life a lot easier. </p><p>You'd be wrong.</p><p>//Soulbonds of a more broad kind- friendship, family, and romance</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Jeremy and Ulrich: the First Bond

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Strung Along of Fate](https://archiveofourown.org/works/2660975) by [brawltogethernow](https://archiveofourown.org/users/brawltogethernow/pseuds/brawltogethernow). 



When each person is born, it is with strings attached to their hands, invisible to everyone except those the strings connected to. A child will, for instance, have one connected to their mother and one to their father. At least, they should.  


Ulrich Stern was a rare example of someone born without a string connected to one of their parents when both biological parents were still involved in his life. He had a string to his mother, but not one to his father. This, of course, was a closely guarded secret, as it would be downright shameful to admit that father and son did not have this connection so essential to their lives. Ulrich wondered if the string didn’t show up because fate had known how his father would treat him. There was a theory he’d heard once, that abusive bonds refused to form as a protection mechanism. His mother and he were connected by a thin string that was a deep blue. Ulrich was certain the color had more to do with his mother’s depression than with him. Not that he’d ever mention that.  


Ulrich had a much thicker green string connecting him to their housekeeper, and Ulrich considered her more of a parent than either of his biological ones. This was something he kept to himself. The extremely pale pink string connected him to Eli Delmas. Ulrich found her somewhat annoying but mostly tolerable, and since they were connected, he put up with her. It wasn’t like he really had anyone else to hang out with, anyway.  


Sometimes, Ulrich would wiggle his hands and stare at the strings that were just barely there. They were colorless until the connection formed, and until then could be seen in a way similar to that of a heat wave. Ulrich had his mother’s string on the second to last finger of his right hand, just above where Eli’s sat, only somewhat thicker. His housekeeper’s was on his left index finger.  


The pinky of his right hand had a string on it, just waiting to flare to life. It was already a wider string, he could tell, and he knew the pinky finger was often associated with love. Of course, there was a great deal of controversy about this, and it varied from country to country, but still. It was nice to know he had one. 

Another string of around the same width sat on his second to last finger on his left hand, which made him want to groan half the time. That finger was often associated with rivalry, though it was usually of the friendly kind. Right now, his left and right middle fingers and right thumb were empty, as were the left thumb and pinky. There were two more on his right index finger.  


So he had three out of seven so far. Given that he wasn’t even twelve, that wasn’t horrible. As people were born there would be more anyway. A string couldn’t show up for a person who didn’t even exist, after all. Ulrich had always been a more introverted person anyway, he didn’t really mind. Plus, it wasn’t like you weren’t allowed to hang out with anyone else just because there wasn’t a string there. People had actually created and destroyed strings before. It was rare, but it happened. Often, a ‘superficial’ string would appear upon the right thumb, a dull gray in color when people connected for short periods of time, perhaps as roommates or project partners, so long as they considered themselves ‘connected’ in enough of a way to create a string. If the connection persevered, a ‘true’ string was created on another finger. More often, the grey string would simply dissolve as the people moved on.  


Ulrich had had five temporary strings, with kids at school and the kid who lived next door for a couple of years. He watched the last of the strings dissolve as he was driven to Kadic Academy for the first time. Sissi’s string was perking up, and, he noticed, one on his right index finger grew conspicuously more active, as though it was being tugged. This was a sign that the person whom it connected to was nearby.  


Every school allowed time for students to find their strings, because all schools were aware it was pointless to try and teach children when they wanted to know who the hell was connected to that string that keeps twitching. At Kadic, it was also used to determine room assignments. Who better to share your room with than someone fate had picked? As such, when they arrived at Kadic, most kids were milling around trying to find their strings.  


Ulrich left his parents behind and walked quietly through the courtyard towards the cafeteria, then took a turn into the school building, following the string to a classroom. He found the boy, younger than most, he noted, with large glasses and short blond hair talking excitedly to a woman in a lab coat. He was moving around excitedly, which was probably why the string had been moving so much. As Ulrich stopped in the doorway, the string lit up like a firework, becoming sky blue. It drew the attention of the boy, making him stop talking mid-sentence to gape at his hand, then follow the string up to Ulrich, who simply held up his hand to show the string, eyebrow raised. The boy appeared unable to speak. The teacher chuckled.  


“I see you’ve found a friend then. We can continue this talk later. Goodbye Jeremy.” The boy just nodded, seemingly dazed. Ulrich walked into the room to allow the teacher to get out.  


“You’re- you’re-” the boy waved the hand with the string on it as though trying to express something. Probably incredulousness.  


“Ulrich Stern.” Ulrich introduced himself, somewhat amused at the boy’s antics.  


“I- right- I’m Jeremy Belpois.” Jeremy bounced on the balls of his feet. “It’s nice to meet you!”  


“You look young.” Ulrich almost didn’t think about the implication behind the words, but realized how tactless it was when the boy withered into himself, looking downtrodden.  


“I skipped a grade?” he said it almost like a question. Ulrich just nodded.  


“So I guess this means we’re roommates.”  


“Actually...” Jeremy rubbed the back of his neck, looking embarrassed. “I’m supposed to get a single so that I can study... it’s part of the deal my parents made.” Ulrich couldn’t help the grin that came to his face.  


“We both get our own rooms? Even better. No offense, but I didn’t actually want a roommate.”  


“That’s fine.” Jeremy said quickly, clearly wishing to please his new friend. “Unless you think that you’ll be meeting anyone else today?” Jeremy cast a quick glance at his own hands, and Ulrich ventured a guess that none of his strings were moving either.  


“No. You’re the only string that’s going to activate today.” Ulrich shrugged. “Let’s go.”  


“Okay!” Jeremy, very pleased, immediately agreed.  


“I do hope you’re going to assert yourself some.” Ulrich commented as they entered the courtyard. “No way am I making all the decisions.” Jeremy just smiled nervously before glancing down at his hand.  


“My parents are coming.” He said. “Do you want to meet them?” Jeremy asked nervously. Ulrich glanced at his own hand. His mother’s string had barely flinched, meaning his parents had likely sat down somewhere and were probably talking, and not interested in where he was.  


“Sure.” Ulrich shrugged. Jeremy grinned, grabbed Ulrich’s arm and dragged him where Ulrich presumed the strings were leading him.  


“Jeremy!” a woman’s voice called.  


“Hey mom, dad!” he waved. “I’ve found one of my strings!” he said excitedly, waving Ulrich’s hand along with his own as Jeremy’s parents caught up to them. Ulrich merely shook his head in amusement. Kadic didn’t seem like it would be too bad, at least.  


SoFSoFSoFSoFSoF  


Jeremy Belpois had been born with all of his strings already firmly attached, which was actually pretty rare. At least, everyone thought so. Usually, when a young child got another string, it was fairly obvious. The creation of a string caused a pulling sensation that thrilled some children and scared others, so usually children were very vocal about it. If nothing else, they usually played with the newest strings for a while after getting them (how this was possible was still under heavy debate, but the end of the strings could be touched if one wished to touch them). Jeremy had never shown any of the signs. When he was old enough, he cheerfully told his parents all about the little invisible strings that were on his fingers, As well as the two attached to them and the one attached to his grandfather.  


His parents weren’t concerned until Jeremy reached school age. When Jeremy had skipped a grade they had thought he would find at least one bond there, but this was not to be. Jeremy managed to be a successful loner, for the most part, only occasionally getting bullied, but he was very lonely. Not only was he younger, but he appeared to be the only one in his entire grade who didn’t have at least one string hanging around. Not in the whole school did he find one of his bonds.  


To make up for this, Jeremy obsessively studied the strings that decorated his fingers and searched to find everything this could mean. The internet was a godsend. He looked up every story he could on the strings and the bonds that formed them, read every scientific journal he could understand, even getting his parents to explain some before he was old enough to really understand the scientific speak.  


Jeremy knew a lot about the so called ‘Strings of Fate’ also called the ribbons of affection/love, tails of knowledge, soul mate detectors, lines of connection, bonds of fate, and so many other things. They were on nearly everyone, with very few exceptions. In fact, people with no strings used to be considered demons, and had been sacrificed in many societies. Recent studies had discovered this was one of the signs of a sociopath or extreme mental disorders.  


Despite the extensive studying, there was little actually known about them, though it was believed to be a psychic phenomenon of some sort- being connected to the brain, which allowed for the brain chemistry to be created, etc.- but that answered very little. There was a reason that many societies had lived, breathed and died by the strings attached to their fingers.  


Jeremy had three attached to his ‘familial’ finger. These were the only three that had activated at all. He had another string on his lucky finger which was the left hand finger nearest the pinky. The only fingers with strings on his right hand were his index finger, which had two, and his pinky, where there was a lovely thick string that had been so still he could barely believe the person was alive.  


That wasn’t to say the other strings were very active, but there were twinges that people had found correlated with incidents in the life of the other. He was pretty certain that all his other strings had felt how horrible the last day of his second week of school had been, the day he had been moved up a grade and he had been bullied badly. His parents had picked him up immediately after school, his grandfather even visited, having felt the twinges across the strings. He too, had felt twinges ache across his strings, as well as excited bounces that portrayed a positive change. These incidents couldn’t be subtle, they had to have a huge emotional impact in order to resonate. This occurred most often in young childhood, and sometimes was used to age the strings that one couldn’t actually know the age of otherwise.  


The only one that had never moved was the one that he often wished would move the most. The pinky, specifically but not exclusively the right pinky in men and the left pinky in women, was believed to be associated with romantic love. This was not guaranteed, but it was found that most heterosexual couples reported that these were the fingers that they ended up, which was why they were also the most popular ring finger across most countries. His ring finger only told him they were alive, because the string wouldn’t be there if they died. That was his only answer.  


When his parents told him they thought he should go to Kadic, he eagerly agreed, hopeful he would find one of his strings. Still, by that time, he really had given up hope on finding any of them. He’d spent many a time staring at them, thinking they were moving. When he finally felt a string moving, he simply didn’t believe it. He ignored it.  


Instead, he went looking around the school, and found the science teacher, Mrs. Hertz, who eagerly talked to him about the science they would be learning. It was so exciting he barely noticed the movement in his string...  


...Until it burst to life. Jeremy didn’t believe it for a minute. He stopped talking entirely, mind frozen as he looked at the string now full of color.  


The string, a lovely sky blue, connected him to a boy who was probably a whole year older than him. The boy raised his eyebrow at him, holding up his hand to show where the string connected. Jeremy couldn’t deny that he had freaking dreamed of this moment, and it hadn’t been anything like this. Mrs. Hertz said something he didn’t catch, and Jeremy just stared at the string and then at the boy as he moved closer.  


“You’re- you’re-” he wanted to express his happiness at finally finding one of the people he was connected to, but he couldn’t find the words.  


“Ulrich Stern.” The boy appeared to be amused by his stutters.  


“I- right- I’m Jeremy Belpois” he finally introduced himself. Now that the shock was wearing off, he couldn’t control his excitement. “It’s nice to meet you.”  


“You look young.” Jeremy couldn’t stop his reaction. Of course Ulrich wouldn’t want to be saddled with some kid younger than him as one of his strings.  


“I skipped a grade?” He didn’t want his newest bond to fail because of his age. Ulrich only nodded.  


“So I guess this means we’re roommates.”  


“Actually...” Jeremy rubbed the back of his neck, hoping that Ulrich hadn’t been looking forward to sharing a room. “I’m supposed to get a single so that I can study... it’s part of the deal my parents made.” He was relieved to see the grin on Ulrich’s face.  


“We both get our own rooms? Even better. No offense, but I didn’t actually want a roommate.”  


“That’s fine.” Jeremy said quickly, glad that they were both happy. “Unless you think that you’ll be meeting anyone else today?” Jeremy cast a quick glance at his own hands, where none of his other invisible strings had so much as twitched.  


“No. You’re the only string that’s going to activate today.” Ulrich shrugged. “Let’s go.”  


“Okay!” Jeremy, very pleased, immediately agreed.  


“I do hope you’re going to assert yourself some.” Ulrich commented as they entered the courtyard. “No way am I making all the decisions.” Jeremy knew they’d settle into a routine and he’d probably actually get a bit bossy. He felt a tugging on his hand and glanced down to see that his parents’ strings were activating.  


“My parents are coming.” He said. “Do you want to meet them?” Jeremy asked nervously. Ulrich glanced at his own hand, then shrugged.  


“Sure.” He said. Jeremy grinned, grabbed Ulrich’s arm and dragged him towards his parents.  


“Jeremy!” his mother called.  


“Hey mom, dad!” he waved. “I’ve found one of my strings!” he said excitedly, waving Ulrich’s hand along with his own. Jeremy honestly didn’t think he’d ever been happier. Several other people were feeling the warmth of his joy bubbling across their strings, as well as the more sedate relief that Ulrich was experiencing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since I know you'll probably want to know:  
> Ulrich and his mother: Prussian Blue  
> Ulrich and his housekeeper: Forest Green  
> Ulrich and Sissi/Eli: Champagne Pink  
> Jeremy and his mother: Dark Moss Green  
> Jeremy and his father: Flame Red  
> Jeremy and his grandfather: Dodger Blue


	2. Learning Curve

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shorter chapter, but I wanted to post the next bit. I wouldn't expect updates like this all the time though. In fact, please don't you'll be very disappointed.

Ulrich didn’t seem anything like what Jeremy had imagined any of his strings would be like. Ulrich was mostly quiet, he was also often very rude (though Jeremy was not much better at times). As they grew more comfortable with each other, Ulrich did come around some. They were different- french fries and ice cream different- and at first, it was difficult to find common ground. Soon though, they found themselves settling comfortably into the relationship that fate had probably intended. 

They often partnered in classes, though they didn’t always sit next to each other, in which case they both sat alone. Sometimes though, Sissi took this to mean she could bother Ulrich, who had long out grown putting up with her more angering tendencies, the pink string on their fingers shrinking as a result. Jeremy actually really liked being friends with Ulrich. He didn’t mind giving Jeremy space, but he also took the time to ensure that Jeremy was taking care of himself, something Jeremy would often forget when he got caught up in something. He didn’t anger all that easily, though he was sensitive about his grades, which Jeremy had found out only a little while after they met. 

“What did you get on the French test?” he’d asked him one day. Ulrich had shrugged and muttered something, not looking at Jeremy. Jeremy had already been bracing for some bad news- Ulrich’s string was twitching all over with something like failure- and he wasn’t super surprised that Ulrich looked as bad as the bond felt. Jeremy was about to push further when he remembered what his mother had said after being introduced to Ulrich. 

“Remember sweetie, a lot of people aren’t as good in school as you are. A lot of times you may succeed where they won’t, and if you aren’t careful, that’ll make them resent you. Don’t push them to tell you about their grades, that’s personal. Offer help where you can, but don’t try to force it. Don’t bring up grades all the time, it can make people be anxious. Just be courteous and aware of other people’s feelings. If you got a horrible grade, you probably wouldn’t really want to talk about it either, would you?” 

So for the moment, Jeremy let it go, though he worried over his only friend for the rest of the day, something Ulrich definitely noticed. Still, they said nothing until the end of the day, when Jeremy went to Ulrich’s room nervously, knocking with the hope Ulrich would actually let him in. He did, looking reluctant. 

“What did you get on the French test?” Jeremy asked once he was in Ulrich’s room. 

“It’s not important.” Ulrich muttered, waving his hand as though to dismiss the subject, sitting on his bed and not looking at Jeremy. Unfortunately for him, Jeremy was stubborn. 

“It is if you really don’t want to talk about it.” Jeremy insisted. “It’s okay if you got a bad grade.” He tried to soothe. 

“No it isn’t!” Ulrich hissed it out, letting his feelings boil over. “I’ll never hear the end of it.” Ulrich ran a hand through his hair. “I failed it, okay? I failed the test.” He yanked it out of his bag and threw it at Jeremy, though it only fluttered to the floor. Jeremy picked it up and examined it. There was a moment of silence in which Ulrich rested his head in his hands and Jeremy read before Jeremy finally realized what was wrong. 

“Have you ever been tested for Dyslexia?” he asked suddenly, and realized that this definitely was the wrong thing to blurt out when Ulrich was so stressed as he was given a scolding look. 

“There’s nothing wrong with me,” Ulrich said angrily. 

“Of course not!” Jeremy hastened to reply. “It would just mean you learn a little differently than the teachers teach, that’s all. And, well...” Jeremy waved the paper. “It would explain some of the mistakes you made. It isn’t your fault, really.” Ulrich shook his head. 

“Yeah, alright?” he muttered, pushing his hair out of the way. “I wasn’t tested for dyslexia, per say, but I was tested to see why my grades were so bad. My dad got angry and says I just have to work hard. He was angry we couldn’t cure it.” 

“It doesn’t work like that.” Jeremy said, confused. Ulrich snorted. He looked really uncomfortable. 

“Look, I only told you because of...” Ulrich waved his hand where the string of their bond was. “Just... don’t mention it, okay?” he looked at Jeremy and there was something in his eyes that made Jeremy feel... equally uncomfortable. 

“I won’t, I promise. I can help though. Read through stuff before you turn it in at least.” Jeremy shifted, uncertain. 

“I’d appreciate that.” Ulrich muttered. “Can we just...” he made a vague gesture. 

“Yeah, do you want to play that one game you were talking about before?” 

“Yeah.” They didn’t talk about it again, nor about the fact that Jeremy suddenly started to deliver notes to Ulrich which had been typed with fonts more friendly to people with dyslexia, nor the fact that Jeremy read over all of Ulrich’s homework and even some of his classwork, nor any of the other things Jeremy did to help Ulrich with their schoolwork. If, in exchange, Ulrich humored more of Jeremy’s unintelligible babbling, well, no one knew the difference. 

SoFSoFSoFSoFSoFSoF 

“So you’ve done a lot of research on the strings of fate?” They were hanging out in Ulrich’s room, not doing anything particularly interesting when Ulrich asked. 

“Yeah.” Jeremy said. “I wanted to know if I could find my people sooner.” He admitted. Then he snorted. “You know, the bonds do that to us.” 

“Do what?” 

“Make us say things we wouldn’t tell anybody else. Though there is some controversy. Some people think it’s the psychological element of the bond- you know it’s someone you’re supposed to trust so you tell them things you wouldn’t be able to tell other people.” 

“Yeah, I get that.” Ulrich held his hands above his head, studying the strings that decorated them. “Which finger is which? I know the ring fingers, the lucky finger and the family finger, but I don’t remember what the other ones are.” 

“Well.” Jeremy held up his own fingers, studying his own strings as he spoke. “Left to right, it’s ring, lucky, networking, family and bad bonds. Then temporary, friend, cross-species, protection and ring.” 

“That... explains a thing or two, actually.” Ulrich flexed his fingers, feeling the gentle strings as they moved. “Can we send thoughts across them? Like in the movies? I’ve tried it before but I never got the feeling they went through.” 

“It depends. Some people claim they can, and there has been evidence that it’s possible, but only for some people. It’s incredibly rare that you’d be able to do more than send extreme emotions across the bond. Success is also dependent on the state of the bond. I am able to sense your mood more easily now that our string has activated than I was able to before. I’m sure it’s the same for you, as well.” 

“Yeah. It’s weird, all these stories about bonds, and yet no one really seems to understand them.” 

“Everyone has their favorite theory. Mine is that it’s who we are meant to meet as far as the future we have decided. I don’t like the ‘unchanging’ theory, because I don’t think time or fate is set the way some people do. What about you?” 

Ulrich thought about it for a moment. “It’s the people we would meet, no matter the circumstances, the bond just makes it easier to see who those people are, but it doesn’t create the relationship. It just gives it a jumpstart.” There was a moment of silence after this. 

“That was a quote from a movie wasn’t it?” 

“It was a good movie.” 

“I’m sure it was.” 

SoFSoFSoFSoFSoF 

“Ulrich, I don’t understand why you’re hanging around with that Belpois kid.” Sissi had cornered Ulrich on his way to lunch. Between them, the bond shimmered, a sign of intense emotion. 

“He’s one of my strings, why else?” Ulrich shifted, his own annoyance becoming evident. “You know I’m not a social person Eli.” 

“It’s Sissi!” she hissed, hunching her shoulders. “Besides, I’m one of your strings, and you barely talk to me anymore.” 

“Maybe it’s because Sissi is an immature spoiled brat who insults everyone and thinks she’s better than everyone else.” Ulrich barely kept his voice down. Sissi jerked away, looking hurt, before anger flooded her face. 

“See, you’re so different and it’s all that stupid Belpois’ fault!” 

“Do you hear how ridiculous you sound? This isn’t about Jeremy. He hasn’t done anything and you need to leave him alone. It's about the way you're acting! You were never like this before, and I can't stand it. You want to save our bond? Stop being such a... such a bitch.” Ulrich felt bad for saying it, especially seeing the look on her face, but he was seriously done with this entire act that was Sissi. “Eli was one of my strings. I don’t want to be attached to Sissi.” 

He left Sissi behind, crushed, and he didn’t have to look at his hand to feel as the string on his finger moved, wrapping itself across his left thumb and turning the color of dead plants, as the emotional connection cut off, dulled beyond what he could feel. He pretended to be alright when he met Jeremy at their usual spot, and Jeremy pretended he didn’t know something was wrong. 

“So I’ve been thinking...” Jeremy started after a few moments of silence, looking unsure. 

“Been thinking what?” Ulrich looked up at his friend with a raised eyebrow. 

“Well... I need some spare parts for my robots, and I was thinking... there is that factory not too far from here...” Jeremy shrugged. “We could go there this afternoon and look around.” 

“That sounds like more fun than anything else I was planning to do this afternoon.” Ulrich grinned. “Do you know how we’re going to get there?” Jeremy nodded eagerly, and the boys got to planning their trip, making Ulrich forget about his fight with Sissi, which had been Jeremy’s hope all along.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I read a headcanon that Ulrich had dyslexia and it actually made a lot of sense with the show- he makes mistakes regarding words that are similar, he's really intelligent and yet still has trouble on tests, that sort of thing.


	3. We're Not Normal, Are We?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So here's the next part! I can honestly say, I have absolutely no idea where this is going. It might devolve into a more drabble like sense as we continue, but I do not know for sure.

“I can’t believe there is such an easy way to get to the factory from the school.” Ulrich said as they climbed out of the sewer entrance. 

“I know, it’s weird, but good for our purposes. It goes further too, so we may be able to find other places on the grounds that we could enter through.” Jeremy said. 

“So more adventures then?” Ulrich grinned. “Sounds like we’ll be having a lot of fun soon.” Jeremy rolled his eyes but said nothing. They made their way to the factory, where Jeremy headed down the rope first. Ulrich, after a moment’s hesitation, followed. 

“That’s a fancy elevator for a factory.” Ulrich commented. 

“It is.” Jeremy frowned at it. “In fact... it’s too new.” 

“What do you mean?” 

“Just what I said.” Jeremy pointed at the pulley system. “That’s way too new compared to the rest of the factory.” 

“Well then, it must be hiding something interesting.” Ulrich started to look unsure though. “Are you sure we’ll be okay here Jeremy? It wouldn’t do us any good to accidently infuriate some sort of underground cult or something.” 

“Oh please.” Jeremy rolled his eyes. “I doubt it’s anything that ridiculous. Besides, the dust alone shows there is no way anyone’s been here in ages.” he said, gesturing to the dusty footprints they’d been making. Jeremy studied the keypad under the elevator buttons, completely ignoring Ulrich, who watched with slight exasperation as Jeremy reprogrammed it. “I’m going down, coming with?” 

“If I let you go alone you’d probably hurt yourself.” Ulrich stepped into the elevator and Jeremy activated it, having it take him to the next available place. 

“Whoa.” Jeremy said as he looked in. 

“What is all this stuff?” Ulrich stepped out more cautiously. 

“It’s some sort of computer system.” Jeremy said in awe. “I’ve never seen one like this in real life.” 

“What makes you think it isn’t just the base of operations for the factory?” 

“Because that makes no sense. There would be no reason to need a system this big to run a factory, which would mostly revolve around machines being individual anyway.” Jeremy studied the large screen in front of him. “Maybe we should turn it on. I’m sure the base is around here somewhere, maybe down a few floors...” 

“No.” 

“But think of-” 

“No.” Ulrich sighed. “Jeremy, what good could come from turning on this computer?” 

“Well we won’t know until we turn it on, will we?” Jeremy secretly shared Ulrich’s doubts, but the thrill of the knowledge he could acquire from this was pushing him toward turning it on. Jeremy looked at Ulrich with a steely glint in his eyes. Ulrich tried not to groan, because he knew that look. Of the few fights he’d ever really had with Jeremy, they’d all started because of that damn look. “We should turn it on. Who knows what we could discover? And when we’re done, we’ll turn it off.” 

“Jeremy this isn’t a good idea.” 

“There won’t be any harm in it.” Jeremy said in an attempt to convince them both. “And it’ll only be for a little while.” Ulrich sighed. 

“When you’re done, you’ll shut it off?” 

“Absolutely.” Jeremy said with an excited look. Ulrich huffed. 

“Fine. But only if we check the rest of the place out first so we know we aren’t turning on a weapon of mass destruction.” Jeremy nodded, and they returned to the elevator. By the time they reached the last room, which Jeremy seemed certain was the actual computer, Ulrich didn’t think he’d be able to stop Jeremy without tying him up. 

“I hope we don’t regret this in a minute.” Jeremy said as he flipped the switch. To both Jeremy and Ulrich’s surprise, only a moment after the computer flared to life, so did one of the strings on their hands. 

“What the hell?” Ulrich said bluntly as the string on the same finger as Jeremy’s settled into a bright pink color. Before he could really think, Jeremy was dragging him towards the elevator. As soon as they reached the floor where the computer chair and monitor were, Jeremy jumped out and sat on the chair, activating the screen. Ulrich stayed in the elevator staring at his hand, the string trailing downward to the computer’s base. 

“Hello?” Jeremy said hopefully as he accessed the computer. He felt his heart hit his throat as a pink haired girl popped up on the screen in front of him. 

“Oh!” she seemed surprised. “Where am I? Who are you?” 

“I’m Jeremy.” He grinned, couldn’t help it, as the string that had been dead for so long moved with light, a beautiful dark pink. “Who are you?” 

“I... I don’t know,” she answered, looking confused. Jeremy didn’t need the string on his finger to tell him he was in love. Her expression was freaking adorable. 

“What’s going on Jeremy?” Ulrich finally came up behind him, staring at the screen where the girl looked out. 

“Who are you?” she asked, her voice so full of innocence it made Jeremy want to swoon. 

“Jeremy,” Ulrich said, his voice terse. 

“Look, I don’t know how or why, but I think the person we’re connected to is her.” Jeremy pointed towards the girl on the screen. 

“She’s a computer girl,” Ulrich said, clearly skeptical. “She probably isn’t even human.” 

“Her bond would be on a different finger if she wasn’t,” Jeremy fought back instantly. The look Ulrich threw him told Jeremy Ulrich had guessed what finger this bond was on for him. Jeremy blushed a bit, but set his jaw. Ulrich gave a heavy sigh. 

“What are bonds?” the girl asked. 

“Oh, on Earth,” Jeremy started, immediately perking up, “We have bonds to people who are important to us. When we turned on the supercomputer, we each had one activate.” 

“Oh, I see. Is that the reason I feel this connection with the two of you? Almost like I know you?” she asked. Jeremy sent Ulrich a smug look, causing Ulrich to roll his eyes. 

“That’s precisely why.” 

“Alright, but that doesn’t explain much of anything,” Ulrich reminded him. “If she’s human, why is she on a computer, of all things? What happened to her? How does this work?” he asked, waving his hand in the girl’s direction at the last question. 

“That’s a pretty color. Is that one of the bonds you were talking about?” the girl asked. Ulrich froze. 

“You can see it? Only the one string?” he asked. She nodded. “Then I suppose...” Ulrich grimaced, as though having to accept some sort of unpleasant fact. 

“...this must be our bond. We can only see the bonds that we’re connected to.” 

“This is amazing!” Jeremy burst out, bouncing in the chair. “Ulrich, do you have any idea what this means?” 

“I have a feeling you’re going to tell me.” Ulrich responded, clearly resigned to whatever fate had in store. 

“This means that people can be put into computers! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MANY SCIENTISTS WOULD KILL FOR THESE RESOURCES?” He gripped the collar of Ulrich’s shirt and pulling his ear forward as he shouted in excitement, though he let go when Ulrich slid him a look. 

“No, I don’t,” Ulrich said, rubbing his ear. “And I don’t want to find out. Can you get her out of the computer?” he asked impatiently. “We shouldn’t leave it on forever.” 

“I don’t know,” Jeremy admitted. “I haven’t even looked at the system yet. I should do that.” 

“Please do.” 

“What’s a scientist?” the girl asked as Jeremy turned back to the computer. She had been watching the two interact with curious silence. Jeremy launched into an explanation as he began to look through what he could see of the system. 

Ten minutes later Jeremy was sitting back in the chair looking thoughtful. 

“Well can you do it?” Ulrich asked impatiently. 

“Right now? No. For some reason, she is treated like a computer program. There is no indication that she is human, but I can’t think of a way that anyone would be able to make an artificial intelligence that could bond. At least, not automatically. That’s just completely unbelievable.” 

“So you think I’m human?” the girl asked. 

“Yes. What do you know?” he asked her. 

“No more than you, unfortunately. I can’t remember anything other than waking up,” she shook her head. “I don’t even know if I have a name.” 

“We’ll think of one if we have to,” Ulrich said. Jeremy sent him a surprised look. “What, you think I want to go around calling her computer girl or something? People will start thinking we’re crazy.” 

“Good point. How about Maya?” he asked the girl. 

“I like the sound of that.” She seemed pleased. “That’ll do.” 

“Great, so now that that’s settled, what else do you know?” Ulrich asked Jeremy. 

“Well, Maya appears to be inside of a tower on some sort of virtual world, though I have no idea what it looks like in a practical sense. I can get an overview, but that only tells me so much.” 

“Perhaps I should go explore,” Maya said, looking around. 

“Be careful,” Jeremy told her. She shut down the visual as she moved towards what appeared to be the entrance of the tower. Carefully, she stepped out, and into a... forest. 

“This place is amazing!” she gushed, looking around. 

“Do you think you could send us a visual?” Jeremy’s voice rang out eagerly. 

“I can try.” The image that popped on screen even impressed Ulrich. 

“Bet that took a long time,” he commented. 

“That’s absolutely amazing.” Jeremy grinned. “Keep looking Maya.” With that, the girl walked forward for a few more moments until she ran into a creature. 

“There’s something else here.” 

“Really? That could be-” Jeremy began, only to be cut off by Ulrich. 

“Get away from it,” Ulrich said sharply. “I’ve played enough video games to know how this ends.” His warning came too late, however, and they heard Maya cry out and the computer started beeping. 

“Head back to the tower Maya!” Jeremy cried out. A moment later she must have entered the tower, as the beeping stopped. 

“Looks like a point based health system,” Ulrich said looking at the screen. 

“Interesting, the tower heals you Maya.” Jeremy said, looking at the card that had popped up. “You should stay in there where it’s safe, for now.” 

“We need to get going Jeremy,” Ulrich said as he checked his phone for the time. 

“You’re right,” Jeremy sighed, “but we’ll come back.” He told Maya. “Until then, maybe you’ll find a way to interact with the system.” 

“I can certainly try,” she agreed. “Goodbye Jeremy, goodbye Ulrich.” 

“Goodbye Maya,” Jeremy said. Ulrich just waved his hand. “So was it worth the trip?” Jeremy asked Ulrich as they got in the elevator. Ulrich just snorted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like Jeremy does a lot of internal squealing in the prequel that we never get to see because he had no reason to voice it. With Ulrich, there is finally a reason to make such excitement somewhat external.


	4. The Circle is Complete

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas! I haven't had any time to write and it doesn't look like I'll have any time soon, so I was glad that I had this next part finished and on hand for the end of year festivities! Woo! I won't be skipping around with the point of views so much after this, it's mostly just a start up sort of thing. Things will also probably slow down a bit from here. So anyway, I hope everyone is doing alright, and enjoy the chapter.

Odd Della Robbia came from a big family. He was the youngest of six, and the only boy. Because of this, it wasn’t really all that uncommon that he didn’t have bonds with all five of his sisters. The only bonds he had among his sisters were with his youngest sister, Adele, and one of his oldest sisters, Louise. All of his familial bonds were small. It was something he had come to accept long ago, that he wouldn’t be really connected to any of his family. Even the sisters he had a bond with could barely stand him once he grew to a certain point. Because of this, his parents offer to send him off to boarding school excited him. Odd was always one for adventure, and this town was so boring without anyone to share it with. Odd was certain he would find his place somewhere else, and if somewhere else was boarding school... well then, why not? At the very least, he’d get away from his sisters, who were a bunch of bullies when they weren’t ignoring him anyway. 

Five strings. Odd had five strings just waiting to spring to life. Frankly, he couldn’t wait. He was tired of being alone around here, of barely connecting to the people around him. For some reason, fate hadn’t deemed any of the people in the town fit for his bonding. Well, he hadn’t either, so he couldn’t really complain. Odd wanted _out_ , because he was sick of _here_. Even though a part of him felt abandoned by the decision, he was sick of his life so excitement to get away managed to outweigh it. 

He knew he’d made the right decision when he felt four of his strings tug as the plane got closer and closer to its destination. He felt even more excitement bubbling in his stomach as he leaned forward to whisper into his bag where Kiwi was wriggling away. 

“We’re going to find them, Kiwi. They’re at Kadic. Pretty soon, we’ll have more people to hang out with.” The dog gave a tiny yip, which was thankfully small enough that he wasn’t heard over the buzz of the airplane and the guy snoring in the seat ahead of him. Odd reached in and ran a hand down Kiwi’s back, the string on his middle finger rippling between them, the color of a daffodil, which was wrapped around Kiwi’s front paw. Why this was no one, least of all Odd, knew. But it didn’t matter. Kiwi was his only real friend, and he didn’t know what he’d do without him. 

Kadic Academy was... pretty stuffy looking, actually. Considering the amount of money his parents were shelling out, he wasn’t really surprised. Still, he didn’t know what he was going to find here. Following the directions he’d been given and actually going to the office was a lot harder than he thought it would be what with all the strings tugging so insistently on his hands. 

“Ah, so you must be one of the transfer students,” the secretary said as he went into the office. Odd simply nodded. She smiled at him, and he remembered to give her a smile back. Despite his nerves, he was not some sort of a shrinking daisy. Not by a long shot. “Alright, Principal Delmas will see you in a minute. What’s your name?” And so the mind numbingly boring part commenced. He was given a new kid speech and told he’d be given one of the three open rooms in the boy dorm, depending on if he bonded or not. There was one single room left, as well as two shared rooms that each currently had one occupant. This was by far more interesting to Odd than the school rules, though he paid enough attention to those to know which ones he’d probably break by the end of the week. 

Finally he was led towards the classroom by the phys ed teacher, appropriately named Jim, where he would be taking classes, only to stop dead in the hall as he was blinded by not one but _two_ firework explosions before two different purple strings lit up on his fingers, one on his index finger and one on his lucky finger. 

“Well,” said one of the people he’d connected with, “that’s one down.” The one who spoke was tall, with brown hair and eyes. He was wearing a tan shirt with a pair of green pants and a matching jacket. The other was a blond haired boy wearing a blue shirt about two shades lighter than his eyes and khaki colored pants. 

“So you’re connected to these two huh?” Jim said. “Well, looks like you’ve got yourself a roommate, Stern, Della Robbia.” The brown haired boy (probably Stern) groaned at that. The other looked apologetic. “Now you two make sure Mr. Della Robbia gets to all of his classes, you hear?” 

“Yes Jim,” the blond boy said. “We’ll take care of it.” He gestured Odd toward them and they all entered the science classroom. “You can sit with either me or Ulrich,” he told Odd. “It doesn’t really matter. I’m Jeremy Belpois by the way, who are you?” 

“Odd Della Robbia,” he said, sitting down next to the brown haired boy who snorted at his introduction. 

“Odd huh? Never heard that name before,” he said. 

“It’s Norwegian,” Odd informed him with a shrug. “Ulrich right?” 

“That’d be me,” Ulrich grumbled. 

“Don’t you sound awfully pleased,” Odd said sarcastically. 

“Don’t mind Ulrich, he’s not so bad once you get to know him. He’s probably annoyed that not only are you his roommate, but you’re also his ‘rival’ if your string is anything to go by,” Jeremy interrupted from behind them. 

“Gee, thanks Jeremy. _So_ glad to be analyzed,” Ulrich said. Jeremy just gave him an apologetic smile. Odd looked at their string and realized they were, in fact, connected by the lucky fingers on both sides, which, while not unusual was still very interesting. He had Jeremy’s on his friend finger while Jeremy had his string on his lucky finger as well, he noted. And still there were two more strings waiting to be activated. 

“Are you guys expecting to meet anyone else today?” he asked. It couldn’t hurt to know. 

“Yeah, actually. We have one more person left today,” Jeremy said. “What about you?” 

“Two more.” Odd said. Jeremy looked surprised and Ulrich suspicious but they weren’t able to continue talking as class began. Odd did find it interesting that across the bonds he felt Ulrich’s apprehension and suspicion and Jeremy’s excitement. Part of this was the newness of the bond making them oversensitive in close proximity, but Odd decided to focus on the feelings. It was Ulrich’s reaction that really made him think. It appeared his new friends had a secret, and he wanted to know what it was. 

SoFSoFSoFSoFSoFSoF 

Yumi Ishiyama was not all upset to be moving. She wasn’t like her brother- she had no friends at her old school, and she didn’t particularly care one way or the other where they were living- but that didn’t mean packing up and having to reassert herself somewhere else brought tears of excitement to her eyes or anything. Frankly, she didn’t really care. Hiroki had been doing nothing but complaining over the fact he was leaving behind one of his strings- never mind the bond had been a created one rather than a born one- and he wouldn’t let anyone in the family forget about it, to their annoyance. 

Unlike her brother, who had sat around listening to stories about the strings of fate with fascination and impatience, Yumi had always been content with the mystery behind her strings. It wasn’t that she never wanted to know who they’d be, she was just perfectly fine waiting. It might take six years, it might take sixty, and there was no use dwelling on it. 

For the most part, this was true. Occasionally she’d get lonely and wish for one of her strings to activate, and she’d often wish she could comfort them when she felt pain of some sort go across her strings- which happened far more often than any type of pleasure- but that hardly meant she couldn’t wait. Yumi knew that most of her strings were younger than her. She could even remember getting the last two strings, the bubbling joy as she watched the first string wind itself around her friend finger and later the second wrapping around her protection finger. Yumi was used to being the oldest, she was used to being responsible. She didn’t always like it, but she had been raised to believe in the role she had been given, as an older child and a representative of a traditional Japanese family. She would do what was necessary. 

When her strings began to react, she almost didn’t believe it. She was fourteen and the only string that had ever activated was her little brother’s when she was five. She had almost forgotten what it was like to feel someone coming who was meant to be. She flexed her fingers as she stared out the window, enjoying the feeling of the strings gently gliding and bumping into her hands. She didn’t really notice that her mother and father had been casting looks at her as she felt all her inactivated strings just begging to come to life. She watched them almost entranced, ignoring her brother, ignoring the sights that flew by the window, ignoring what she was leaving behind in favor of the wonders ahead. 

A few hours after they had gotten the basic needs settled, Yumi’s parents insisted that she explore a bit. Hiroki was to stay and help her parents set up a few more things as punishment for all of his whining. While these things were both true, her parents also had a feeling that she was to meet her strings soon, which was considered a highly personal and private thing. 

In Japan, it was traditional that anyone who experienced the activation of their strings in public would immediately be taken to a private room and left alone with a single guard outside the door- usually a family friend or, in higher status families, a trusted servant. There had often been parties with all children of an age to speak, spreading out within a room and finding their strings, an ancient practice that was still popular, especially in smaller areas. While it was considered highly private, it was still expected that family would be made aware of who was attached to their family members. As such, the Ishiyamas were hopeful that their daughter would prove they had raised her well by introducing her to her bond mates soon after being found. 

So this is what led Yumi to taking the short walk towards her new school, though she wasn’t entirely aware of this until she saw it. Students appeared to be leaving, and beyond the gate more students appeared to be milling around. The gate wasn’t being monitored at the moment, and Yumi recalled that this was going to be her school, add to that her strings were getting really excited... 

Yumi wandered through the gate, following the strings that encouraged her towards the forest that seemed to be around the campus. 

“Jeremy, you can’t know that he’s trustworthy,” an angry voice rang out as she entered the tree line. She listened closely, walking past the path that had been set. 

“You can’t know that he’s not!” another voice argued, just as heated as the first had been. 

“Could both of you stop talking like I’m not here?” a third voice, much higher than the other two, interrupted. “And am I the only one who’s getting a lot of tugging on one of their strings?” Silence followed this question, and the sound Yumi’s feet made as she walked became even more obvious as she continued to follow the strings. She heard someone else move and then a brown haired boy stuck his head out from behind a tree. The fireworks that lit up between them shocked Yumi, as well as the dark red string that brightened on her left pinky. 

“Uh, hey,” she muttered, wondering how exactly one was supposed to start a conversation with one of the most important people in your life. She didn’t think any of the things she’d seen in movies really applied to this situation. This was especially true because the two of them had a blush filling their faces due to the fact they were connected _by the ring fingers_. The boy coughed before seeming to get a hold of himself. 

“Hey. So um... you were looking for us?” he said, nervously. She nodded. She could hear other people moving and two blond heads peaked out, before another blast of fireworks appeared before her eyes. Two more strings lit up, one on her protection finger, connecting her to the blond boy with glasses, and another on the friend finger, connecting her to the blond with a spot of purple in his hair. 

“Man, I’m going to go blind,” the boy with purple in his hair exclaimed, rubbing his eyes. 

“Actually,” the other blond boy spoke, “You can’t go blind from the experience of bonding. Bonding is an entirely psychic phenomenon and is not at all connected to your actual eyesight. In fact blind people have been known to report an experience of extreme sound rather than the ‘fireworks’ that we see. There is actually evidence that the fireworks are a socialized-” 

“Jeremy,” The brown haired boy cut off the other with a sigh. 

“Ah, yes. Sorry about that,” the boy held out his hand to Yumi. “Jeremy Belpois, by the way.” 

Yumi grasped his hand and shook it, the blue string folding between them. “Yumi Ishiyama,” she introduced herself. The other blond boy immediately jumped into action. 

“Odd Della Robbia, pleased to meet you.” He grasped her hand almost as soon as she’d let go of Jeremy’s, their dark purple string flapping as his hand moved. “And boy am I glad I’m not on your lucky finger. It was starting to get a little boring.” Indeed, the two were connected on the friend finger. “Apparently these two have some sort of big secret and they were arguing about whether or not they should tell me. Well, now it would be us.” He grinned at her, a huge smile that reminded her a bit of Hiroki when he was being particularly mischievous. 

“We just met you today,” the brown haired boy argued. “Just because we have a bond doesn’t mean you’re trustworthy immediately. We don’t know anything about either of you!” 

“Ulrich,” Jeremy sighed. “I really think we’re meant to show them. Odd even has a string that’s supposed to activate, and I’m willing to bet Yumi does too.” Jeremy turned to her with an eyebrow raised. She nodded. 

“One more,” she agreed. “It’s tugging me away in this direction.” She pointed past the boys to a point she couldn’t have known had the entrance to the sewer. Jeremy turned to Ulrich with a look on his face they would all come to know as well as Ulrich had. 

“Fine,” Ulrich said after a few more moments of brooding silence. “But if this goes wrong-” 

“It won’t,” Jeremy said confidently.


	5. This is Going to be Impossible

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long! I was struggling with characterization and how far I really wanted to go and all kinds of not so fun things. It was a roller coaster... and not a fun one. Hopefully I'll be able to get more chapters soon. I'm also writing another part of this series I plan to post soon, as well as another story for code lyoko. That won't be a part of this series and will actually be a deconstruction fic. More on that later though.

They made their way to the factory mostly in silence. Odd and Jeremy were walking ahead, Jeremy practically bouncing with excitement and Odd following with about as much enthusiasm. Yumi and Ulrich walked behind a little, and neither seemed really able speak, especially when their fingers brushed and they felt the string between them, reminding them of its existence. This only served to make them blush deeper. 

“So um, you never told me your name,” Yumi said once they had made it to the sewer entrance. 

“Ah, it’s Ulrich. Ulrich Stern,” Ulrich muttered, his blush refusing to leave. 

“Well, I’m pleased to meet you.” Yumi gave him a smile even though she was still too embarrassed to meet his eyes. 

“Uh yeah, same here.” Ulrich managed to get out, even though he found himself blown away by her smile. She was very pretty, he couldn’t help but notice. Still, Sissi had always been pretty, and that hadn’t had an effect on how Ulrich felt about her. He sure hoped Yumi had more to her than being attractive. They walked in silence the rest of the way there, trying desperately to will their blushes away. Thankfully, it managed to work by the time they got to the factory. 

“So this is your big secret? Looks... unimpressive.” Odd said as he examined the outside of the factory. It was, admittedly, not much to look at. Merely a broken down factory in an island in the middle of the Seine. It looked more like an eyesore than any sort of a spectacular secret. 

“It’s the inside that has the impressive part. Now come on!” Jeremy rushed forward, the others following after him at a less hurried pace. Without thought he jumped onto the rope and slid down to the ground while the other three watched. 

“Is that even safe?” Yumi asked with an eyebrow raised. Ulrich gave a shrug. 

“Well, guess we’ll find out!” Odd said, following Jeremy’s lead he leaped onto one of the ropes, making it to the ground easily where Jeremy waited. 

“What’s the matter? Afraid of heights?” Jeremy called up to the other two. 

“No, but I’m not about to leave someone up here on their own.” Ulrich called back. He looked at Yumi, who was studying the rope as though she still didn’t quite trust it. “So how about it? Are you going down?” Yumi seemed to debate this for another moment, before she finally let out a sigh, and grabbed one of the ropes. Ulrich grabbed the other one, the two reaching the bottom one right after the other. Jeremy, looking cheered, raced to the elevator and the others followed reluctantly. 

“Now, be prepared, because this is pretty cool.” Jeremy said excitedly, bouncing in place as the elevator doors slid shut. Ulrich rolled his eyes and Yumi and Odd observed them as they interacted. As Jeremy bounced, Ulrich watched him with resigned amusement, giving his arm a bump with his elbow that Jeremy seemed to take as some sort of signal, and he forced himself to be more outwardly calm. When the doors opened Jeremy didn’t run this time, and only walked to the computer monitor, though he did so with an undeniable bounce in his step. As soon as he sat down, the other three appearing around the chair, the screen lit up. 

“Good afternoon Jeremy, Ulrich.” Maya spoke as she appeared on screen. 

“Well hello there!” Odd said as he heard her greeting. “I’m Odd and I am delighted to meet a beauty like you!” 

“Oh hello, and thank you!” Maya, oblivious to the flirting, responded. She looked over at Yumi. “And who are you?” 

“Yumi,” Yumi responded, frowning as she looked down at her hand. The string on it was going crazy, but it hadn’t activated yet. When she voiced this, Jeremy looked surprised, before a thoughtful look crossed his face. Then, his face cleared as an obvious epiphany came to him. He grabbed Yumi’s and Odd’s hands, and shouted at Ulrich to keep Maya company. 

“How are you doing Maya?” Ulrich asked after the elevator doors closed. 

“I’m quite well. I’ve found out more about this place.” 

“Have you?” Ulrich turned more of his attention to her, ignoring the elevator he’d previously been eyeing from the corner of his vision. 

“It’s called Lyoko!” she told him cheerfully. “It has four sectors. An ice sector, a desert sector, a mountain sector, and a forest sector which is where I am. I don’t know how to get to the other sectors yet though.” 

“I wonder if Jeremy will be able to figure it out.” 

“I’m sure- oh!” Maya exclaimed. “I can feel those other two now! The same way I feel you and Jeremy!” 

“Really? I wonder what Jeremy did.” Ulrich said, looking back towards the elevator which, coincidently enough, opened only a few seconds later. 

“It worked. I knew it.” Jeremy was babbling as he exited the elevator, Yumi and Odd following behind him looking surprised. 

“I’m guessing you got their bonds to activate then?” Ulrich asked. Jeremy nodded vigorously. 

“Maya isn’t actually in the screen, she’s in the computer. Bonds are activated by sight -usually at least- and our strings activated when we turned on the supercomputer, which is where Maya’s soul is. It only makes sense they’d have to see the place that houses her soul for the bonds to activate. And it worked!” Jeremy hopped into the computer chair. “You can feel it too, can’t you Maya?” 

“I can,” she smiled at them all very brightly. “I’m so pleased to see you all.” 

“Alright, now that Einstein over here has finished with his experiment, would anyone else care to tell us what in the world is going on?” Odd interrupted. “I, for one, am very confused about literally everything that’s going on right now.” 

“Yeah, what exactly is one of our bonds doing in some sort of computer?” Yumi asked. 

“Well... I have no idea.” Jeremy admitted. “We found Maya when we came here to look for spare robot parts-” 

“-when you came to look for spare robot parts while I came to make sure you didn’t break your neck,” Ulrich interrupted, giving Jeremy a smirk, to which Jeremy merely shot him an annoyed look before continuing. 

“Ulrich noticed the elevator, and I noticed that it was way too new to be a part of the factory, so after convincing Ulrich to go down, we found this, and I wanted to turn on the computer, which we eventually did-” 

“-After a lot of arguing-” 

“-Stop interrupting! And we found Maya here, who is stuck in some sort of virtual world-” 

“-It’s called Lyoko!” Maya cheerfully interrupted Jeremy, and Jeremy did not scold her for doing so, much to Ulrich’s annoyance. 

“What did you say?” Jeremy asked Maya politely. 

“I did some looking around and I found out this place is called Lyoko,” she quickly explained (in more detail than she had to Ulrich) what she had discovered about the different sectors. “I still don’t know why I’m here though. I haven’t found any clues to my identity. Though I have found that there are more of those creatures, whatever they are, on each of the other sectors. They aren’t even all like the one I saw! I don’t know what’s controlling them though. I tried to tap into their programming and I couldn’t find it.” 

“That’s most peculiar,” Jeremy muttered as he started looking through some of the information Aelita had pulled up himself. “I’ll have to look into more of the programming to see what I can find.” 

“You haven’t done enough of that already?” Ulrich asked resignedly. Jeremy only gave him a look which Ulrich took to mean ‘no definitely not, why would you think that?’ 

“I’m still confused,” Odd interrupted. 

“Well let me see if I got it,” Yumi said, waving Odd off. “You two came here and found what appears to be a virtual world that has a human trapped on it, who has no memory of who she is, but that we all are connected to.” 

“Sounds right.” Ulrich agreed. 

“But why?” Odd asked, still somewhat baffled. “I mean, as cool as it is that there is a virtual world that you can put humans on- and don’t get me wrong, that’s awesome –why would anyone be left there? You turned on the computer, so that means that someone purposely left a human being inside of a machine and then turned it off. Which is both depressing and downright scary.” There was an awkward silence as they digested this thought. 

“I don’t know,” Jeremy finally said, “but I think we can all agree that we can’t just leave Maya inside.” 

“No, I suppose not.” Yumi agreed with a sigh. 

“I’ve found the codes to send a person to Lyoko, even if I can’t get Maya out,” Jeremy gave them his version of a charming smile. “Anyone want to try it out?” there was about four seconds of absolute silence. 

“Are you out of your mind Jeremy?” Ulrich asked conversationally, as though Jeremy had asked him if he wanted his brussel sprouts. 

“I mean, it’s the only way to check,” Jeremy said reasonably. “Unless you can find me some sort of guinea pig.” 

“A guinea pig, huh?” Ulrich looked thoughtful for a moment, before the look on his face went positively mischievous. “I think I’ve got an idea.” 

“I don’t think I’m going to like this idea,” Odd said, having an inkling of what was going on. Before he could say anything else, Ulrich booked it into the elevator and was quickly followed by Odd, leaving Jeremy and Yumi behind. 

“So... are you a student at Kadic?” Jeremy asked to fill the unexpected silence. 

“Not yet. We just moved here, so I’ll be joining the ninth grade tomorrow.” 

“Really? You’re older than us then. We’re all in the eighth grade.” 

Yumi frowned. “So that means I won’t have any friends in any of my classes.” She gave that thought for a solid second. “Ah well, not the worst thing to happen, and certainly not unexpected.” She waved the idea away with her hand, much to Jeremy’s clear amusement. 

“What are these grades?” Maya asked them, drawing their attention back to the computer. This had the added advantage of giving Jeremy something to talk about to fill the silence while they waited for Ulrich and Odd, as Yumi was content to watch them in silence. 

In truth she was contemplating all that she’d discovered in so short a time. She had a bond with a girl stuck in a computer, as well as three bonds with people who were at least a year younger than her. Odd seemed... silly, and she had a feeling he was more mischievous than he appeared to be at this moment. Ulrich appeared to be much more... relaxed? No, that wasn’t the word. Shy, quiet. Yes, that was more like it. Neither he nor Jeremy appeared to be as boisterous as Odd. Jeremy seemed to be bossier though, and he certainly seemed to be rather smart if he was making robots and able to get the codes for the computer, as well as given the way he’d talked about the strings earlier. He and Ulrich were both stubborn from what she gathered about their argument. Maya was the simplest among all of them, considering she had no real memory. She appeared to be kind, curious, and innocent. Yumi didn’t think that she’d be much more until she had time to create memories and learn a few things. They’d have to watch over her. Her thinking was interrupted by the sounds of the elevator turning on. 

“Ulrich must have found his guinea pig.” Jeremy said. Sure enough, Ulrich came back a moment later, from the side railing rather than the elevator. 

“You can give it a try Jeremy,” he said with a smug smile on his face. 

“Alright,” Jeremy, eager to continue, immediately began the process. Yumi turned to Ulrich. 

“Exactly what did you put in the scanner?” she asked suspicious of the feelings of anger and fear on Odd’s end and the smugness on Ulrich’s. 

“That mangy mutt that Odd sneaked into the dorms,” he said, scowling at the thought. He scowled even harder when he received a swift smack upside the head. “Ow! What was that for?” he rubbed the back of his head. 

“For being an insensitive jerk, that’s what it’s for!” Yumi was about to continue when Jeremy called out. 

“We have a problem... Odd appears to have taken the place of whatever the guinea pig was! I can’t stop the process!” they all felt it on their strings when there was a sudden burst of energy across the strings. For a moment, a single moment, it simply ceased to exist.


	6. These Foolish Boys

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is a little shorter, and I've just finished this and barely read through it. There may be mistakes, and I will likely edit it again later but I've really been hoping to get this chapter out to you all so here it is.

Just as quickly as it started, it ended, the strings easily resituated themselves onto their fingers as though they hadn’t moved at all, and suddenly Odd’s voice could be heard on the computer, as well as fear and confusion across his strings. “Uh Jeremy?”

“Odd, are you alright?” Jeremy asked, more than a little worried about one of his newest bonds.

“Yeah, this is weird... it’s like a videogame.” Odd looked down at him, and suddenly sent out a wave of disbelief and irritation. “Why am I a giant purple cat?” Odd would have continued to complain if he hadn’t just spotted the creatures coming toward him, hearing the strange noise they made as they did. “Hey, there are these things-”

“Avoid them, they aren’t friendly.” Jeremy gave Odd the directions to the tower that Maya was in while Yumi turned back to glare at Ulrich.

“You’re lucky he’s fine!” she scolded him. “Did you have to be a jerk and take his dog? I get that you’re angry he sneaked it into the dorms, but you were seriously going to use his dog as a test subject in something that could have killed it? Not only is that rude to Odd, but it’s animal abuse!” Ulrich was definitely not looking smug now. Hunching his shoulders, he muttered out something that might have been an apology. “Don’t apologize to me, apologize to Odd.”

“Yumi, could you go down to the scanner room and pick up the dog- Kiwi -from down there? I don’t want it stuck in a scanner when Odd comes out.” Jeremy asked her, obviously half listening to Odd. Yumi nodded and, with one last glare at Ulrich, entered the elevator. Ulrich went to stand next to Jeremy, shoulders still hunched. “Maya, Odd is on his way to your position.”

“Oh, I can’t wait to see him!” She said excitedly, before exiting out of the screen she spoke from. There was silence for no more than a few seconds.

“She’s right you know,” Jeremy sighed pulling the earpiece down so that no one else could hear what he had to say. “That wasn’t really like you. You usually aren’t that cruel. Are you alright?”

“Yeah,” Ulrich muttered sulkily. He glared at the sideways look Jeremy gave him. “I’m fine,” he said, but it came out more like a whine than anything else. This only caused Jeremy to give Ulrich a completely disbelieving look. Stubbornly, Ulrich looked away.

“Fine, but I know you certainly do regret doing it now, if only because you’ve been yelled at. Honestly, I shouldn’t have been so eager either, but I wasn’t really thinking.” he admitted, looking slightly embarrassed. “It may have made a bit of a bad impression, but I’m certain that we can work through it. Don’t let it get you down too much.” Jeremy put his earpiece in and began speaking to Odd again.

The elevator door opened and Yumi came out holding Kiwi, who looked almost smug to Ulrich’s eye. “I don’t know how you managed to get him so easily Ulrich,” she complained. “He made me chase him around for five minutes!” Ulrich grunted instead of responding. “Are you sulking?” she asked him suspiciously.

“Yes he is,” Jeremy said without looking away from the computer this time. “You might as well get used to it, Ulrich is a champion sulker.”

“I do not sulk!” Ulrich was most definitely pouting at that moment. Yumi just stared at him.

“Unbelievable,” she muttered, petting Kiwi between the ears. Ulrich glared at her, and she glared back, but before anything else happened, their gazes were drawn to the screen as it began to beep incessantly.

“I think Odd is going to need some backup, more of these creatures have arrived and they don’t seem to want to leave Odd alone.” He turned, gave the two a charming smile. “Would either of you like to join him?”

“I will,” Ulrich said immediately. He was already walking towards the elevator when Yumi answered.

“I think I’ll stay here and watch after Kiwi,” she said, “I don’t think they really need me right now.”

“Suit yourself,” Jeremy said, though he seemed to agree. Yumi continued to pet Kiwi, scratching behind his ears and managing to endear herself to him while Jeremy virtualized Ulrich.

“Is he always like that?” she asked Jeremy once he had given Ulrich instructions on how to get where he needed to be. Jeremy glanced over at her.

“Sulky or somewhat rude to animals and roommates?” he asked, moving his earpiece so it wouldn’t catch his hushed words.

“Both.”

“Ulrich doesn’t always sulk, but it is something he does from time to time.” Jeremy looked at her, considering. “Ulrich... he hasn’t had the easiest life. You’ll have to learn more about it from him, but Ulrich has been stewing in negative emotions for a good part of his life. Maybe he would always have been that way, maybe he wouldn’t, I don’t know. Sometimes it overwhelms him. I have a feeling that you just caught him at a bad moment. A part of that does influence how he acts toward others. He can be a jerk sometimes, but he means well. Ulrich is a pretty good guy, he just has some rough edges.” Jeremy gave her a tired smile. “Don’t let the bumps of this meeting turn you against him.”

Yumi leaned back, considering. Jeremy seemed to have read her string well, as she had been put off by Ulrich’s actions. “You’re a wise soul Jeremy.” His responding smile was just a bit bitter, and it resonated in his string.

“So I’ve been told,” he said. Then he turned back to the screen to help Ulrich and Odd. She hesitated, then moved Kiwi in her arms so that she could place a hand of solidarity on Jeremy’s shoulder. He sent her a quick smile. “Okay Odd, Ulrich, the tower isn’t that far from your position. Now that those creatures are out of your way, you should have a clear path to Maya.” This was confirmed a moment later when Maya brought up an image of herself and Odd and Ulrich. Yumi couldn’t stop the laugh that came out.

“You’re really a giant purple cat? What the heck?”

“I know!” Odd said looking put out. “It’s not fair! Ulrich’s a samurai!”

“It’s pretty cool, actually.” Ulrich said with a bit of a grin. His string had calmed down to the point Yumi could no longer feel any emotion from it, though there was a strong sense of awe from Odd’s string and excitement from Maya.

“So now that they’re here, what are we going to do?” Maya asked. Jeremy considered.

“I think it would be best if you guys helped Maya look around. You guys will just come right back here if you run out of lifepoints. Maya would die.”

“Fair enough,” Ulrich shrugged. “I suppose we could give it a try.”

“I think we should start... here!” Odd said, and with a flash of triumph coming across his string Ulrich didn’t get the chance to react in time as Odd pushed him over the edge. “That’s for trying to virtualize my dog!” he shouted after the falling Ulrich.

“Both of these boys are morons!” Yumi fumed, trying her best not to panic even at the flood of feelings that were coming across Ulrich’s string. He may have been a pain in the ass but he was one of her strings and if he died she’d kill Odd. Luckily for Odd, Ulrich lived.

“Ulrich’s signal has changed... it’s now in one of the other sectors,” Jeremy said, “let me see... here it is.” He pulled up something and Yumi saw another screen pop up even as irritation and a bit of relief came flying through Ulrich’s string. Yumi grabbed the headset attached to Jeremy’s ear and yanked it off, ignoring the hiss of surprise that came from him.

“Odd, I swear to God, you do anything like that again and I’ll kill you. If either of you do shit like that again, I’ll kill you. Bondmates or not.” She thrust the headset back to the irritated Jeremy, and they all were forced to revel in each other’s irritation, which was the most prominent emotion from all of them, and only fueling further irritation.

“Is everyone alright? Why... why do I feel... sort of angry?” Maya questioned, the only one who didn’t have irritation entirely her own.

“It’s a side effect,” Jeremy said with a grimace. “The more people you’re connected to who are feeling the same emotion, the more you feel the emotion. They call it knotting up the strings because you end up getting knotted up in the feelings of your bondmates, and they in yours.”

“It can be fun if everyone is feeling a nice emotion, like affectionate or happy,” Odd said. “But right now we’re all irritated at each other and you’re getting caught in the crossfire of our similar emotions.”

“Essentially,” Jeremy agreed with a huff. “Hopefully we can all distract ourselves which will allow the emotion to dissipate. The more we focus on it the worse it gets.” So the other two joined Ulrich and explored the new sector that Ulrich had landed in (the ice sector) while Yumi and Jeremy spoke of what was happening as far as the technology went, though Yumi’s understanding was more limited than Jeremy’s.

“Ah crap, I’ve got to get home.” Yumi said as she looked at the text she’d just received from her mother about dinner.

“Oh it is getting late,” Jeremy said in surprise. “I guess I’ll have to devirtualize Ulrich and Odd so we can get back before curfew.”

“I’ll look forward to your next visit!” Maya said brightly as Jeremy brought Ulrich and Odd back to Earth.

The walk back was pretty quiet, as there was still some lingering negativity from the activity of their emotions.

“So I guess I’ll see you guys tomorrow.” Yumi finally said when they were at the entrance to the sewers.

“Yeah, guess so,” Ulrich muttered. He hadn’t really been able to look at her since she’d yelled at him, even if now he understood why.

“Ulrich and I sit at the bench in the courtyard nearest the cafeteria.” Jeremy said. “You can meet us there in at lunch and... well you know, whenever.”

“Won’t we see her in class?” Odd asked, but Yumi shook her head.

“No, I’m in the ninth grade.”

“Really?” Ulrich finally looked back up in surprise.

“Yeah really,” she glared, and they all found themselves flinching at the surge of negative emotions that swamped them again. It was especially bad because the bonds were so newly activated, making them more sensitive to emotions.

“Sorry,” Ulrich muttered, looking away again.

“No, I’m sorry,” Yumi said, irritated with herself now. “Just a roller coaster of a day.”

“Tell me about it,” Odd said with a bit of a laugh. Kiwi barked in his arms. Yumi gave him a scratch behind the ears and waved at them all. They waved back, watching until she was out of sight.

“You can keep the dog, but only if you swear to clean up after it. Otherwise I’ll tell Jim. You got it?” Ulrich said to Odd. Odd nodded vigorously.

“Swear I will, I always have. Now... we really should get going.”

“Yes,” Jeremy agreed. “Jim may already be looking for us.”


	7. A Forceful Union

It was irreversible after that. They were the Lyoko Warriors, and they fought to free one of their strings. Finding out about Xana made them even more determined to free Maya, or Aelita as they learned her to actually be named. The biggest issue they had after that first day was people worrying as the bond was forced to reassert once the body had been destroyed. It only happened during virtualization, funnily enough, but it still shocked at least one person every time.

It also made it really hard at first to keep themselves together during emergencies. It’s hard enough to deal with your own fear, let alone the fear of four others, perhaps more depending on the situation. It was a balancing act they nearly lost more than once.

“Jeremy, take a few deep breaths before we all pass out, thanks.” Ulrich said dryly as he was in the middle of fighting a megatank.

“Sorry, sorry! It’s just a lot of stress I can’t deal with directly.” Jeremy said, barely resisting biting his nails, a habit that he’d picked up that he was desperately trying to stop. Jeremy forced himself to box up his emotions to control them, and it helped some, though he couldn’t stop some of the fear leaking out. He’d learned how from a theory he’d read up on about soldiers and how they handled the fear of their comrades in battle. He’d been thinking of making the others read it too, but they all appeared to do it far more instinctually than he.

It was so much work, and to be honest none of them had been prepared for it. Still, things seemed to work in ways they hadn’t expected. They were good together, easily anticipated each other’s moves on Lyoko and they were, despite their clashing personalities, well adapted to each other’s oddities with little time. It was disturbingly easy.

The strings, of course, helped. Yumi could feel Ulrich’s irritation and often embarrassment when Sissi bothered him, just as he could feel her exasperation when boys started hitting on her. Jealousy was also something they could feel from each other, and it kept each other far more honest. Odd always knew when he was bothering the others, and when he was toeing the line with them before he crossed it. They all knew when something was bothering Yumi, when Jeremy needed someone to boost his spirits so he could keep programming or to help him remember he was a human being who needed to eat and sleep. They all knew when Aelita was lonely and could use a quick chat to help her out. They all especially knew when Ulrich was in a sulking mood.

Perhaps they would have been friends anyway (they kind of doubted it), but now, they were good friends, who helped each other out and kept each other company and prevented each other from dying. It made communication easier if only because it had to happen- it’s more difficult to say you’re doing fine when everyone and your mother knows you aren’t. This of course also meant it was more difficult to get past their parents in emergencies.

“Mom, I need to do something so could you please-”

“What do you need to do Yumi?”

“SOMETHING LOOK I’LL EXPLAIN LATER.” At which point Yumi would disappear and not worry about explaining because of the return to the past. They’d all also received phone calls from their parents at the most inconvenient times.

“Mom, I’m fine, really.” Odd said, lying through his teeth as water poured in to the grate.

“You don’t seem to be fine,” His mother pestered him, genuinely worried about the fear she shouldn’t have felt so strongly with him so far away.

“It’s nothing to worry about,” he tried to reassure her, wishing he’d checked the caller ID before assuming it was Jeremy.

“What’s that sound?”

“We’re breaking up!” Odd said, before hurriedly shutting his phone. He kind of wished he hadn’t because his mother was a distraction from the fact that he was slowly being drowned, but he really didn’t have any explanation that would suit her and it took too much focus. She called him four more times before he dropped his phone and couldn’t use it anymore.

When a girl named Taelia came to school Jeremy mentioned that it was weird someone who looked so much like Aelita had transferred in, but made no more comment than that. The one time Odd listened to his music silently Ulrich turned around from his studying at feeling confusion and fear from Odd’s string to see Odd was frozen on the ground with a weird smile on his face, causing Ulrich to promptly freak out, allowing them to prevent an epidemic before it occurred.

This could make things more terrifying as well as safer. Feeling as Yumi fell into the digital sea, or as Aelita sacrificed herself, the feelings that overwhelmed them all took them out more than once, sent them all spiraling into behavior that they couldn’t explain. Tears, getting sick, anxiety attacks, these became common after near death experiences, if only by proxy at times. Being so close kept the bonds humming and strong, emotions feeding into each other too strongly when they were unprepared for them. They’d curl together, Jeremy’s computer connected to Aelita, the rest all touching, calming each other down with soothing words or just crying together. They used each other’s presence as anchors to remind themselves everything was still alright.

This did also mean they had to be introduced to parents, though, something none of them was especially fond of. Ulrich barely introduced them to his parents, who only nodded in acknowledgement, Yumi’s parents scrutinized and questioned them all, not to mention her little brother who asked all sorts of absurd and personal questions. Jeremy’s parents embarrassed him to no end, speaking of how he hadn’t had any friends before them. Odd’s parents were strange, to say the least, and the way he spoke of them made more sense once they had met them.

They virtualized Aelita, and nothing was quite what they thought anymore. She did have strings with all of them, which she was thrilled about. She still didn’t have her memory back, which they were all less than thrilled about. She also had two connections- shocking pink and saffron yellow- which she said felt like they belonged to ‘mother and father’ respectively. The yellow one led back to the supercomputer. The pink one did not. That meant that not only was Aelita’s mother alive, but she was out there, somewhere, _and knew her daughter was alive too_. They waited anxiously, hoping that at some point Aelita’s mother would do what she hadn’t yet and try to find the daughter at the end of her string.

Then Yumi met William and everything went to hell. They’d all been in class (save Aelita who still hadn’t been brought back to Earth on a more permanent basis) when they’d felt it from Yumi, a blinding terror and confusion. Yumi had been sitting in class when the new boy was about to be introduced, and when she looked towards the door as he was ushered in...

A string exploded between them.

It hadn’t been there before, she’d never felt it, never seen it, it couldn’t possibly have been there-

-but it was. She didn’t even bother to look at the color as she saw that it’s attached itself to her pinky, curled next to the red of Ulrich’s string. It was like the world ceased to exist. Who was this new boy, who somehow, someway had managed to activate a string that HADN’T BEEN THERE BEFORE??? She didn’t hear William and the principal and teacher talking, didn’t even register that she was being told to come to the front of the class.

She bolted out the door. Mentally she tugged on her strings – ** _boys come here I need you_** \- before she crashes herself into an alcove and stays there, breathing wildly in and out, trying to control herself because things like that just _shouldn’t_ happen. Her mind is a jumbled mess and she’s just calling out to Jeremy, Ulrich and Odd through the bond. Normally she wouldn’t panic like this, but normally, she isn’t suddenly compounded with a whole new bond, forcing its way into her life and onto her finger. It isn’t a particularly pleasant feeling- even temporary bonds aren’t like this, so immediate and forceful- and she’d already been on edge that day.

She doesn’t register the sound of feet and doesn’t stop the aggressive response when someone touches her until she feels the strings resonate and realizes it’s Ulrich. Jeremy and Odd are there too, though they haven’t touched her and she’s grateful for it. “Yumi, what’s wrong?” Jeremy is the first to speak, his face looking drawn and his mouth pressed into a firm line, something usually reserved for the most confusing or stressful Xana attacks.

“The string, it just... he was there and it appeared and I can feel it-” Odd is the one who tugs her into a hug that she doesn’t end up pushing away from. She’s having trouble breathing because the bond is forcing itself into her and she doesn’t understand why- it’s like all of the firsts of a bond all at once and it hurts- the others are there too, and she can feel them, her chest heaving and her mind being soothed both by their calm and their worry.

She doesn’t know how long they stay there before she hears Jeremy speaking to the Headmaster. She’s still being soothed by Odd and Ulrich and the unexpected bond is fading into obscurity with her other bonds, no longer painful but still awfully intrusive. She’s calm, now, calm enough to look at the Headmaster and actually talk to him.

“I apologize, Miss Ishiyama. We should have given clearer warning before we introduced Mr. Dunbar to the class.” The Headmaster said with genuine regret.

“What... what happened?” she asked. The man opened his mouth to answer but Jeremy was the one to actually do so.

“He has a fate disorder.” Jeremy said to her as calmly as he could. “He doesn’t get any warning over who he bonds with. The timing also appears to be... utterly random.” Jeremy glanced at the Headmaster who nodded.

“Yes, we weren’t expecting anything to occur, as Mr. Dunbar hasn’t had the issue happen upon initial meeting before. We thought we’d have more time. I’m sorry about the pain we caused you, Miss Ishiyama.”

Yumi just nodded. She leaned over onto Ulrich, and he put an arm around her shoulders. She zoned out for a few more moments before she felt her boys help her to her feet and had her begin walking. They’d stopped talking and she didn’t feel like asking, so she just followed them as she was led to the nurse’s office. William was already there. She refused to look at him, the hand which had his new string curling between her and Ulrich’s side as she hid her fingers. Ulrich, always the overprotective not-quite-boyfriend, glared over at William who looked just about as sick as Yumi.

“The both of you will be excused from classes for the time being. You can return when you’re feeling better. I’ll contact your parents, Mr. Dunbar, Miss Ishiyama, and let them know what happened.” The Headmaster left them in the care of Yolanda, who immediately began doting on Yumi. She and William were across from each other and she couldn’t do much but stare at him. Her boys (and she’d come to think of them that way for quite some time, was surprised and disturbed that someone would be added to that description) were around her, though they wouldn’t be able to stay long. There was absolute silence while her boys were there, and she only dared to speak to the other when they are alone. This wasn’t something she wanted the others to be in on.

“What did you do?” she asked him, tone accusing. She didn’t bother to try and hide her anger. His laugh was bitter.

“I didn’t do anything. Fate decides all of these things for me. At least, so I’ve been told.” He ran a shaky hand through his hair, the bond sending her his nervousness and bits of his pain. “Look, I’m sorry. I don’t get a choice, okay? It just happens. Though... this is the first time I’ve ever had it happen on a first meeting.”

“You mean you normally bond with people you already know?” she asked. She couldn’t believe it. She’d heard of fate disorders before, of course, but they were rare. To the point of fiction.

“Yes. It hasn’t happened very often. To one of my cousins, and someone I knew at my old school, but that’s it.” He looked at her hands, and started. Then he grinned, accompanied by a flash of affection that only fuels Yumi’s disbelief and anger. “Hey so we’re soul-”

“Don’t say it,” Yumi’s throat constricted. She automatically hid her hand so he can’t see where the bond attached.

“But the string-”

“I already have a soulmate,” Yumi’s voice brooked no argument, “and it isn’t you. Leave me and my friends alone.” she pushed herself up onto shaky legs and headed towards the door.

“But what about me?” he asks, standing up as though to go after her. His thoughts, _aren’t we at least friends, too?_ go unspoken. The look she sends him is ice cold, and matches the feelings of disgust and anger that resonate on their bond.

“What about you?” She asks. She slams the door on her way out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, I know it's been a while, but this chapter fought me like you wouldn't believe. There were a lot of things I wanted to fit in that just didn't match the flow of the story, and so I ended up having to skip them. I may have some side stories for this, but i haven't decided yet.
> 
> Yumi and the others may seem OOC, but in truth they're growing up in a different way. The bonds also have an effect on behavior, to a certain extent. Also, to be clear, you can't send thoughts across a Bond, but you can send feels associated with thoughts and have them be understood. Hence why the boys know to find Yumi- she's sending feelings that make it clear she wants to be found.


	8. Think it Through

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Goodness, it's been awhile! I apologize for the lateness of this chapter, but I've been very busy with school, and admittedly, with a new obsession with certain video games. However I am hoping to get more chapters in soon. I'm going to try with the ones I haven't updated in the longest time and go from there. Things are looking up as far as that goes, but encouragement is always welcome.

Yumi spent the rest of the day at home. She didn’t return to her friends, sent them a text telling them not to bother her. She ignored her mother once she reached home, though thankfully her mother seemed to understand her need to be alone. Yumi fell face down on her bed, only moving her head so she could breathe freely. She had four missed calls and fifteen unread messages, but no one came after her so she didn’t care.

It hurt. It hurt more than she thought possible, more than she ever thought it could. She’d had doubts about bonds before- her parent's bond for instance, which had been shaken for a while- but her bonds had always brought her comfort in the end. She wasn’t sure they would help this time.

She lay in her bed and just let her thoughts drift. She thought about what had happened when her parent's fighting had escalated. How Ulrich had been so sweet, giving her that rose and listening to her without judgement, allowing her to work out what she was feeling and what was going on. She remembered the way her friends had worried over her and the way they’d worked together for the solution. How Ulrich and Jeremy had come up with the plan to get her parents to talk to each other again and it had worked. How happy she’d been when her parents had finally worked it out between them, once they actually started talking again.

Then she remembered the times that she’d nearly died because of Lyoko. Falling into the digital sea, nearly getting killed by a satellite, being stuck in the false Earth that Xana had created and so much more. Jeremy had been so very scared and apologetic at the last- and Yumi knew it was because he’d felt responsible. For all that Jeremy was the youngest of them, he was the one who held himself the most responsible for the things that occurred on or because of Lyoko. The supercomputer, as far as Jeremy was concerned, was his domain, and therefore his responsibility.

They were all responsible though, to some extent. They all had made the decision to continue, to look the other way while Jeremy tried to help Aelita, defying common sense and several laws in the meantime.  Aelita hadn’t understand their dedication (probably still didn’t), at least not entirely. Still, she was quickly becoming precious to all of them, truly a princess in the eyes of her limited people. For a minute, Yumi felt that maybe she should contact her to help sort this out... but no, Aelita was logical, and Yumi wasn’t up for logic right now.

Right now, she wanted to be angry, and hurt, and confused. She didn’t want to think it through, she wanted to wallow in these emotions until they’d overstayed their welcome and she was too tired to put up with them anymore. She wanted to eat junk food and stare moodily at whatever was available. Sometimes you just can’t be happy, she thought, settling herself in for the long haul of emotional wallowing.

She wasn’t very surprised when an hour later Ulrich was led in by her mother. She knew that one of her friends would likely come by to see how she was doing at some point, and that Ulrich was the most likely one. However, Yumi had been ignoring her strings, so she hadn’t been feeling Ulrich’s emotional turmoil. She winced, looking away from his face as she felt the guilt flood her. She wasn’t the only one affected by this. Neither of them seemed able to look at each other. The door closed and it was just her, Ulrich, and that gut wrenching feeling of guilt.

“I’m sorry,” she said before he could say anything. That got his attention quickly, however.

“What are you sorry about?” Ulrich asked. “You haven’t done anything wrong.”

“I didn’t think about how any of you would be affected,” she admitted. Ulrich scowled.

“You think any of us really care about that?” he asked incredulously. “We’re all worried about you! You’re the one this new bond happened to.” He sat next to her on the edge of her bed.

“That doesn’t mean you aren’t affected. It doesn’t mean that William couldn’t possibly bond with any of the rest of you,” Yumi pointed out. Ulrich grimaced, showing he’d thought of that already.

“Do you think he would?” he asked. She shrugged, looking away again as she felt her pinky finger twitch. The finger that held both Ulrich’s and William’s strings. Guilt and shame suddenly overwhelmed her, causing her eyes to fill without her consent. Just like the damn string. The one she hadn’t asked for, hadn’t been warned about, and had no idea what to do with.

“Yumi? Are you alright?” Ulrich, no doubt feeling the surge of emotion, wrapped an arm around her in an attempt to comfort her. She allowed him to, but it only increased the guilt and the shame. Ulrich was her soulmate. She was supposed to grow up and fall in love with Ulrich. It had been fairly simple and clear cut (well, in theory, at least). She should tell him, now that she had another bond. Now that she didn’t know what was happening or how it would affect them both. As Ulrich began to rub soothing circles on her arm, she felt her throat close up. She didn’t want to tell him. She didn’t want to see or feel what would happen if she did. How could she when she had more questions than answers?

What did the addition of William’s string really mean? Did it mean they were both her soulmates? Did she have to choose? Why had she been connected to William? What was significant about the timing? It had activated at the same time as a regular bond, did that mean something? She’d never even thought to learn more than the basics about fate disorders. She was regretting that now.

Not wanting to think about it anymore, she tugged Ulrich closer and pulled him onto the bed, burrowing in. Ulrich, an expert in sulking himself, settled quickly next to her. Yumi closed her eyes and felt a part of her settle a bit, the way she often did in Ulrich’s presence. She wouldn’t say anything, at least, not tonight. Perhaps silence wasn’t smart, but it was convenient and something she’d become used to. It would give her time, and that was all she wanted.

SoFSoFSoFSoFSoFSoFSoF

“I don’t understand,” Aelita said. She tilted her head in that curious way she did sometimes when she was trying to figure something out. Jeremy simply adored it.

“Truthfully, I don’t expect any of us fully understand.” Jeremy said with some sympathy. “It isn’t a very usual thing, that’s for sure.”

“Why was Yumi so upset though, if he can’t control it? It’s not like you ever get a choice in your bonds.” Aelita asked, genuinely puzzled. Jeremy gave her a tired smile.

“Partially, I imagine, it’s because there was no warning. You think you always know what bonds are going to come, and where they’ll be. It gives us time to prepare and makes it feel more inevitable, I suppose. It also hurt her, and I think that’s a big part of why she’s angry,” he admitted. “She was in a lot of pain, and whether it’s true or not, in her mind, it’s William’s fault.”

“But that doesn’t make sense,” Aelita pointed out.

“Humans don’t always make sense, Aelita. Yumi was in the middle of a lot of unpleasant emotions and she reacted more than she thought. She’s been sulking ever since,” he added as an afterthought, giving his right hand a quick wave as though to show the string Aelita wouldn’t be able to see.

“I hope she feels better. I feel bad for both of them. If what you say is true, this poor William has had an even rougher time of it than most people.” Aelita frowned at Jeremy. “He doesn’t deserve to be punished for something he has no control over.”

“I’ll see what I can do to smooth things out between William and the others, but I make no promises. It’s going to be hard for all of us to get used to someone new, especially since we’re going to have to talk about him and Lyoko- something I don’t think any of us are looking forward to. There are a lot of questions we need to answer. There’s a reason people with fate disorders are often ostracized. A lot of people aren’t willing to believe they are trustworthy or honest.”

“Why?” Aelita looked genuinely appalled.

“It’s hard to explain,” Jeremy sighed, “there’s a lot of reasons, really. For the most part, it’s because people fear what they can’t understand or explain.”

“Then why don’t they fear the strings?” Aelita asked.

“Some do. Most ignore it because it brings them good things. Some study it to try and discover the truth behind them. Still, we don’t know much more now than we did 1000 years ago. Little has changed. The strings are still mostly a mystery,” Jeremy concluded.

Aelita was quiet for a few moments, and Jeremy allowed her the time to think.

“Jeremy,” she finally said, “do you think that I feared them? When I was human?”

“I doubt it, Aelita.” Jeremy said with a wry smile. “You don’t strike me as the type who would take issue with them.”

“Maybe not, but... I wouldn’t have met most of you. I wouldn’t have even known I had any of you as strings until I was much older. I think that would have made me lonely, and maybe scared, too.” Aelita said, as open and honest as always. Jeremy shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

“I... perhaps,” he reluctantly admitted, “I hope not but... yes, you are right in that it may have made you feel very lonely. Although we can’t discount that you had other strings that have since degraded or disappeared, it's not as likely.” He sighed, trying to ignore the fluttering in his stomach over Aelita’s possible age and previous personality. “I don’t think you would have been very different though, Aelita.”

“I hope not,” Aelita sighed, before shaking her head. “It’s gotten late again, hasn’t it?”

“Not very late,” Jeremy countered, “Light’s out isn’t for another hour yet.”

“Perhaps not, but I know you have been spending a great deal of your time on discovering how to fix the issues with my materialization. Extra rest would do you good.” Aelita said, a smile on her face.

“I’m not very tired,” Jeremy lied. He was exhausted, if he was honest with himself. Aelita just smiled at him, with a knowing look on her face. Jeremy squirmed again under her gaze, then gave in. “Alright, I’ll go to bed. I’ll talk to you tomorrow though.”

“Of course,” she said graciously. “Good night, Jeremy.”

“Good night, Aelita,” he said as she shut down the connection. He would find a way to get her onto Earth on a more permanent basis, he promised himself.


End file.
